Beyond Ascension
by ShadowSage
Summary: Plagued by nightly visits to Kingdom Hearts, Kaori wishes for nothing more than it to become real. It happens all to swiftly. {Also a little romance.} {AU}


Black. Black as night it was. Swirling masses of horrid obsidian clasped beneath my feet, snaking up my calf and writhing over my hips. It ravaged me; the darkness was already encasing my body in a disastrous swarm of inky tendrils, a mere inch from my face. -Why?!- I thought. I had had a false belief that my heart was stronger than that, that I could survive anything, a foolish and immature thought born from two of the most intricate emotions that mere humans could feel.....arrogance- I felt it rise into my very breath, the sickening yet comforting imbalance that was etched into my head as if the darkness had imbedded the vile secret within the catacombs of my mind. Then there came denial - something I despised with my all weakening heart, a intense emotion I concealed to the point of being naive. My very downfall lay in the battleground of those two evils, suffocating my light in a flash of darkness while the chrome-haired demon merely stood, his outstretched hand an enigma as it was apparent I could not move. Petrified, both from fear and the daunting, smoky blackness, I simply stood still. A twister of icy cold air, chilling and evil, was raging in my heart. The pain was inconceivable to those who have not felt it; only the pathetic creatures such as myself have and they were gone. Dead most likely, I thought, the tendrils of ink finally moving past my breast and onto my outstretched neck. Darkness almost crushed my windpipe- the sudden infiltration of malevolent miasma almost too much to bear as my body screamed. Quite suddenly the darkness receded, stopping at my waist. He stood, there, the bastard that had tried to take my life, my heart for his own desires. His facial features were apathetic and aloof, the limb he offered still outstretched.

"Are you absolutely sure?"

Without hesistation, my vocals vibrated and out came the obsenities and putrid words of hatred that I felt amassing inside that once so vibrant organ.

"Go to hell, Riku."

Albeit it could have been worse, but that insanity called darkness had made me almost collapse in pain even though my words had come like a vile hailstorm, pelting him with every negative feeling and expelling the words I had longed to say for some time. My raven hair swirled about as an infuriated dark prince, as i had come to call him, yelled out and the whole of Kingdom Hearts rattled with silent fury. His once so gorgeous, bright azure eyes, had become so cold they ascended to white of ice, reflecting his darkness-invaded heart.

"You have no idea."

He muttered shrewdly, swiftly moving towards my cold and almost lifeless body. When he was mere inches from me, Riku lifted his hands up, tresses of his silver-white hair blowing out of hsi face as another earthquake hit Kingdom Hearts with the force of a tsunami. Quite suddenly his gloved hand moved forward, grasping with a firm hold onto my already worn neck.

"You hear that?!" He screamed at me, face turning towards the outside where supposedly thousands of Heartless had grown, "They' ve already begun to consume the only light, the strongest light of any world, Kingdom Hearts itself!" His eyes became slightly narrowed, psychotic grin plastered onto his soft ivory skin. "They're all dead. Sora. Goofy. Donald. The worlds of former have dissappeared into the endless abyss of darkness, many more to come. I -will- finish what that idiotic, foolhardy Ansem could not and I'll do it alongside the heartless as their master. Nothing can touch my heart that has already been felt, and as such I am finally invincible." Cackling in the most menacing voice I have ever heard, his grasp upon my throat loosened, but I was still held still by the inky tendrils of the base of his 'success'. I tried to call out to him, tried to throw my arms toward him and imagined myself at his knees, pleading for him to stop and let go of the darkness he clung so valiantly to. Riku stepped away, out of my reach and turned his back to me. All the emotions I ever felt came back to me ten fold whether negative or positive....I could remember my immediate like for him, the first day we met here, in Kingdom Hearts. I felt understanding toward his plight, that Kingdom Hearts was his prison...I even remembered the pleading look in his eyes, the fragile smile that graced his features, and the loneliness and feeling of losing those so dear to him. I remember the night he told me about his destruction of the worlds, and the sudden feeling of foreboding I felt towards him. I was so naive, denying the hunger and malice in his eyes at the time as an infinite amount of pain. The days flew by, and every night I dreamt of him. Many conversations followed, about things otherwordly and things that were common for people our age. I'd go to bed, waiting every night for him to meet me by that strange, almost translucent door and we'd walk in together with childish grins on our faces. He was so interesting...and that was another of my pathetic weaknesses. Curiosity killed the cat, and I was no exception to this unwritten law as I wasted away every night with this deceiving monster.

Reality suddenly came in a sharp, painfully searing blaze of darkness, encircling and snaking up my neck and finally dissolving me into eternal nothingness.

I awake the next morning with an anguished scream, my parents flurrying into my room practically with clubs and firearms. I was soaking in sweat, my makeshift pajamas sticking to my clammy skin. After assuring my parents it was but a nightmare, I lay in bed contemplating that frightful meeting with Riku again. What of tonight? Would I see him again? I knew nothing of a dream without, always ending up at the ceremonious, church-like door that towered into the abyss of darkness. The mere light in that world, and always I felt as if I was special, knowing much about the outside circumstances such as that now fading light. I remembered something.....something important and it drove me insane. Whipping outside with nothing but a large shirt and boxers on, my gaze lingered out onto the horizon and what i saw petrified me, like an icy cold hand upon my throat once more....the sky was a glistening, eerie onyx towards the north, and like and infection of an open wound it spread across the crimson skyline. Those same inky black tendrils became a wall of unholy fog and spread through the city as if they thought they were an epidemic; like cancer everyone fell to the horrible stench and each had their heart ripped from them by the unseeable heartless. I alone stood, unknowing of their pain until I heard the voices of the dissolved inside my head and it nearly took me too. Gazing out onto the lush grass of my lawn, I heard the trees stop billowing, every second the life drained and turned gnarled and twisted. The grass became a vicious mass of dirt as every single blade died before my eyes. Nothing I thought or heard that day was relevant; all I felt was the tortured soul of Riku screaming at me, the lowly girl who could have prevented this world's apocalypse. Standing, I thought of nothing and of no one, my own selfish desires finally overcoming my compassionate barrier as I embraced the darkness. Riku had himself, and maybe I would find someone who could help me repent. I was godless, and I believed myself to be the only thing that mattered at this point. I would save them all and see Riku, as I had so often every night. Perhaps this was an invitation? That silver haired beast was inviting me to play his game, to try and either aid or destroy him. I will find him.

I will find him. And when I do, there'll be hell to pay.


End file.
